	*A NEW BEGINNING*
	Urban wetlands meet CSE initiates a core committee
	*IN FOCUS*
	Null and void? A success story? The flouride menace
	*CAMPAIGN*
	Lake in news From the courtroom To save this tal Operation Baikal
	INITIATIVE
	Stories from Dewas Meerut meet Initiating change Sensitising regional media Doosra dasak Glimmer of hope History rewritten HLL harvests Water soliders The kiwi connection Exploring Ahmednagar
	FACE TO FACE
	For my home....
	TECHNOLOGY
	Bamboo-supari pits Countering flouride Techno tit bits
	CSE'S LATEST DESIGNS
	Meet the new harvesters!
	JAL YODHA
	T R Sureshchandra Arun Mathur Shivanajayya K G Vyas R Ramani
	NEWS FROM CHENNAI
	Recharge maps Bank loans for RWH Harvesting in Nilgris The Vengaivasal model 'Water wisdom' in schools
	JAL BIRADARI
	No to bore wells Ghagara revived Jal bhai, Jal bahen
	NEWS FROM GUJARAT
	Charting future City's pride
	CLASSROOM
	FUNDING AGENCY
	WATER WISDOM
	NEWS FROM ABROAD
	Afghanistan: Rebuilding Karez Kuwait: Desert bloom Africa: Stranglehold in Africa
	WATER IN NEWS
	READERS SPACE
	AN OPPORTUNITY
	BOOK/DOCUMENTS
	VISUAL WATCH
	WEB INFO
	EVENT

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Vol. 4 No. 5 October-November 2002

To save this tal


Restoring Ballia nallah and ravines	Nainital Lake: Just after rains

"First, in the court, when the case is being heard and then, with the executive for the implementation of the court orders. It is an ongoing battle. The litigant and the local people have to act as a watch dog," shares Ajay Rawat, an academician, who filed a public interest litigation for the protection of Nainital Lake in 1993. The Supreme Court gave its final verdict in 1995. Since then, the litigant with public support is on the guard. These efforts are paying rich dividends.

Lakes in News

Lucknow gets cracking
The Lucknow Nagar Nigam (LNN) has recently launched a project to protect eight ponds in the city from decay. This step is taken up to counter the problems identified in a National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI)'s study. It revealed,"Large quantities of garbage dumps and waste water from residential colonies and small scale industries are contaminating these ponds." The NBRI has proposed root zone treatment. It can effectively treat domestic and industrial effluents besides being eco-friendly and economical.

Clean lakes with fountains
The Bhoj wetland project, Madhya Pradesh, has developed a plan of installing nine fountains in the Upper Lake and six in the Lower Lake to keep the water clean. While explaining the process, the project coordinator Prashant Khirwadkar, said, "The water running deep has insufficient amount of oxygen as compared to the one on the surface. Through these fountains the water would come up and then go down after getting oxygenated."

Since 1984, Rawat has been actively sensitising the concerned authorities about lake pollution and the need to maintain Ballia nallah (drain) to supply water to Nainital and adjoining townships. The overflow of the Nainital Lake during the monsoon passes, through the nallah and disgorges in Ballia ravine. The nallah was in shambles and if it had caved in the lake water would have swept off several townships in the foothills. However, these concerns never received attention either from the authorities or of the people living in the plains. Though such mishaps are not uncommon in the region. The SC order on March 9, 1995 effectively addressed the concerns raised. It directed:

To maintain Ballia ravine,
In the town area of Nainital, the construction of multi-storied group housing societies has been banned, and,
Prevent sewage and other pollutants from entering the lake.

The orders has been executed. The proposals of 149 group housing societies were cancelled by the administration. The height and the area of individuals houses constructed has been fixed. The lake is being cleaned annually. Occasional intervention from the High Court has also spurred up the administration. Recently, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has accepted a Rs 98.6 crores plan to revive the lake and its catchment.

The state government has also released Rs 7 crores for the maintenance of Ballia ravine. The works will be completed by 2003, subsequently afforestation programme will be launched and vegetative spurs will be developed. During the monsoons, every year, residents of the surrounding areas were asked to move to safer places, but not this year. (Dr A Rawat, Tel: 423626)

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From the courtroom

Get serious!
On Nov 15, a public interest litigation filed for the protection of city's waterbodies by a New Delhi-based NGO Tapas, was heard by Delhi High Court. The court directed the Union Ministry of Tourism to develop six specified waterbodies as tourist spots by March 31, 2003. Disappointed by the rapid decay of Hauz-i-Shamsi, the court said, "Since 2000, we have been hearing this case and only files are getting thicker. The concerned authorities should now start taking action, seriously."Only three months back, pictures showing its revival were presented before the court.

Operation Baikal

3-graph.jpg (4650 bytes) The liquified waste from both domestic and industrial sources is a major polluter effecting Lake Baikal. The soil erosion in the lake region has also doubled in the last 50 years.The task of maintaining the world's largest, deepest and oldest lake, Baikal in Russia, is not easy. Baikal holds about 20 per cent of earth's fresh water. It is fed by 336 rivers with a drainage basin covering more than one million cubic kilo meter of Siberia and Mongolia.

The conservation efforts are going on at state, society and international levels. After Russian government's reversal of decades of anti-environmental industrial policies, the entire area was notified as a national park in 1992. Every year, a large chunk of the federal budget goes for its maintenance. Organisations like Green peace and Earth Island Institute, USA, encourage volunteers from different parts of the world to work for the protection of the lake and its surroundings.